2of 6Ray Hill smiles while telling stories about his life from a hospice bed in the Omega House hospice, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, in Houston. Hill is a renowned gay activist and prison radio host.Photo: Marie D. De Jesús, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

3of 6Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III speaks during a public celebration of life for Houston Texans owner Robert C. McNair at NRG Stadium, Friday, Dec. 7, 2018, in Houston. McNair, who brought the NFL back to Houston after the Oilers left for Tennessee, died on Nov. 30 at the age of 81.Photo: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

4of 6The Urbasics, of Clear Lake, Minn., sign a guestbook at the George Bush Presidential Library, Friday, Dec. 7, 2018. The couple took the opportunity afforded by the former president's funeral to make a road trip where they visited the presidential libraries of Truman, Eisenhower, George W. Bush and today culminating in their visit to the George Bush Presidential Library. Former President George H.W. Bush was buried at a gravesite on the library's grounds on Thursday. The gravesite is expected to be opened to the public on Saturday, but heavy rains in the area may cause a delay in public access to the site.Photo: Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

5of 6Harris County Judge-elect Lina Hidalgo has hired a consulting firm used by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to help with her transition.Photo: Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

6of 6Democrat Lizzie Pannill Fletcher greets her supporters as they celebrate her win over John Culberson in the race or the 7th Congressional District seat in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018, in Houston.Photo: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Only a place like Houston would take unbridled pride in a founding duo of New Yorker brothers Augustus and John Allen who brazenly misrepresented our then-malaria infested swamp as “beautifully elevated, salubrious and well-watered.”

We don’t care — nobody comes here for the waters. People move to Houston because it is a place that nurtures bold instincts and grand dreams. We’re a city for those too big to live in small towns.Houston is place for East Coasters whose ambition refuses to be restrained by a staid establishment.

It was not by accident that that John F. Kennedy announced the Moon Shot not in Washington, D.C., but at Rice University.

Over the past two weeks, however, we’ve lost three of our best — a trio of men who encapsulated what it meant to be a modern Houstonian.

Their policy perspectives mark opposite ends of the spectrum — at times Hill was in direct conflict with Bush and McNair on LGBT rights and advocacy for prisoners. Yet each one flourished in our sprawling, swampy city, and spent a lifetime giving back. Bush represented us in Congress and focused the eyes of the world to Houston in his post-presidency. Hill’s legal fight for free speech traveled all the way to the Supreme Court, and his victory there in Houston v. Hill has immortalized his name along that of the city he called home. Any given Sunday you can see McNair’s legacy in the thousands of Houstonians who gather around their televisions and fill NRG Stadium to cheer for the Texans.

Houston is too big, too sprawling and too unzoned to limit our civic archetype to a single character. Like a giant jigsaw puzzle, we need all sorts of shapes and sizes to fit together to craft a vision that can keep up with a city this dynamic, this diverse.

Each of these three Houston icons leaves behind something bigger than themselves. Each made Houston a better place to live.

The three also have something else in common — they’re all white men.

For a long time, if you wanted to take part in the big conversations about our city it certainly helped to be a white man. The arbitrary privilege of birth opened doors and quieted rooms in ways denied to women and minorities.

That’s changing. Tomorrow’s leaders, activists and philanthropists won’t all look like the men we just lost. When Hill, McNair and Bush got their starts in Houston, our city was mostly Anglo. Now Hispanics comprise the largest single demographic in Houston. Women, who once faced major barriers in higher education, now make up a majority of university students.

We’re already starting to see the shift at the highest levels. Lina Hidalgo, a 27-year-old Hispanic immigrant, will soon serve as county judge. Bush’s former congressional district elected Lizzie Pannill Fletcher. Time will tell whether they’re able to embody the aspirations of their predecessors, or create wholly new expectations we have yet to even imagine.

It falls on those in power today to pass the torch well. We need to do more to ensure that the next Ray Hill or Bob McNair knows Houston wants them. This means more diversity on corporate boards and in public institutions. It means providing resources for local schools to prepare the next generation for leadership of all kinds. It means building a city that harbors opportunity for anyone willing to grasp it.

If Houston’s future is going to be as successful as our past, then we’ll need a healthy crop of both rabble-rousers and establishment types, politicos and protesters. That’s how to ensure our civic life never grows stale. Somewhere out there in our sprawling, swampy city, some kid with a big mouth or newcomer with big dreams is starting down the path to become the sort of person who will shape our city forever. Let’s make that path a welcoming one.

Houston’s appeal has never been in the landscape. Our strength has been in our people. As long as we nurture ambition wherever it exists, Houston will be ready for whatever the future holds.